My Journey to Truly Believe

I BELIEVE

I grew up in the largest Muslim country in the world. According to the Joshua Project, evangelical Christians make up only 3.19% of the population of Indonesia. We are definitely a minority. I am a Chinese Indonesian, and we are usually culturally “Christian.” I grew up in a legalistic Presbyterian kind of a church that is very culturally legalistic. They promoted status symbols there. Many would try to do their best to do well, to improve their status, either by educational degrees, but then they would brag about it. They would tell others how successful their children are. Some of you might understand these circumstances better than others.

Cultural Christian

Growing up in a culturally Christian family, where you are born into your religion, it is very much what it is–a religion–it’s not so much faith. It’s like having a Christian ID, since people usually have to put on their ID what their religion is. Many Indonesian Muslims and Christians, as a result, don’t exactly understand their religious beliefs. Many “Christians” don’t have true faith because of their religion. For instance, going to church is expected and many feel good because they went, not because of what they experienced there.

So, when did I become a Christian? It depends on what you call a Christian. Most people just label themselves a Christian, or a Muslim, and so did I. However, in college, I came to the U.S and started reading the Bible, started attending Bible study with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on campus. Over the years, I committed my life to Christ many times. I was baptized first when I was 15 in Indonesia, after going through some formal 2-3 weeks confirmation classes. Then, I was baptized again in college. But truly, I didn’t know what baptism meant, even though I could say, “It’s to publicly declare that you are giving your life to Jesus Christ.”

Yet, slowly and gradually, I realized that it’s not just about publicly declaring your faith. It’s about totally giving your life to your faith. My understanding of giving my life is gradually growing. Growing from just going to church and listening to the sermon, to then understanding the sermon, to reading my Bible, to leading Bible study, to living for God, to suffering for God. I am growing now so that everything I do is for God, and only for him, and finally being willing to conform to his death. I see now baptism means being baptized into his death, so I can be resurrected in his resurrection and get a new resurrected body like him, as Romans 6:3-5 says.

To Live Is Christ

So, what does it mean to me now to be a Christian? It’s Philippians 1:21-22: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.” (NKJV). If you believe that you are saved as a Christian, then why do you still continue to live? We should just die and be with Christ–you have all to gain, right? Why live in this wretched corrupted body? But we live because we can still produce fruitful labor. It’s the evidence of our salvation. Not to labor to earn your salvation, but to suffer for Christ, so that others can live also.

The Apostle Paul told his readers not to turn away from their faith, because then he would lose his fruitful labor, the main reason he lived. Second Corinthians 4:7-12 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.” (NKJV)

Throw It All Away

There were all kinds of legalism and self-promotion taking place, which included strictly obeying religious laws, earning certain reputations, getting into Ivy League schools or helping your children get into Ivy League schools. But as we know, our hope is in the righteousness of Christ being imputed into us. No labor, no earning.

In fact, we should throw it all away so we can get to know Christ as Paul wrote in Philippians 3. “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead…” (NKJV)

The final goal is to achieve a resurrected body in heaven. But before then, believers are to enter into the fellowship of the suffering. Yes, suffering, because as Paul indicates, suffering is the necessary process to obtain faith. Suffering is necessary to get our resurrected bodies, by conforming to his death on the cross.

It's a Lifestyle

That’s sure a long way from feeling good for going to church or listening to the good preaching of our pastor and then just going home. Why am I passionate to preach Christ? Because, once you become a true Christian, it’s a lifestyle, it’s the only thing you do. The role of the body of Christ is stated in Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism is a covenant between you and God. It’s an outward, public declaration with physical water symbolizing the spiritual reality of receiving the Living Water (the Holy Spirit) as the signature of his covenant. That Spirit is deposited to guarantee your salvation (Eph 1:13-14). You have the gift of the spirit to serve toward the goal of helping the body achieve that goal. You don’t have to be the preacher, but you can contribute to help the preacher, or the evangelist, and everyone can be a witness for the gospel.

A Part in the Commission

If you belong to the body of Christ, his church, his bride, ask yourself: What is your role in that commission? What is your role in the body of Christ? If you don’t know, reach out to a member of the evangelism committee to help you explore that. Once you become a Christian, a true Christian that is, you are given a spiritual gift. What is yours? You may have one and not know it, but you need to find out to serve more effectively and help the body of Christ achieve the goal of bringing people to the kingdom of God.

It reminds me of the prophet Isaiah. “I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5 NKJV) Then in verse 8, “I said, “Here am I! Send me.” [after he was cleansed and the Lord said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”]

So, if your sins have been purged, show the evidence. You can say, “Send me. I now live for Christ and his kingdom.” You can stand on the corner of Wheaton College and remind students that they are not there to build their career, but to be network engineers, doctors, attorneys, whose real purpose in that job is to work for God by reaching fellow engineers, doctors, attorneys. This work should not be done to achieve a status symbol, but to bring others into the kingdom of God. Let me encourage you to show evidence of fruitful labor in Christ.

If you have questions about evangelism or how you can be involved with evangelistic ministry in our community, please contact the evangelism committee at evangelism@college-church. org. And to grow in evangelism, watch the Christianity Explored series on RightNow Media with your small group.

About the Author | Budi Tjahjadi

Budi currently serves on the evangelsim commitee.